Jan
26
2012
Not Preaching the Gospel Brings a Fate Worse Than Death
The Apostle Paul:
But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. (1 Cor. 9:15-18)
David E. Garland commenting on these verses:
Paul laments neither the overpowering nature of his calling nor the hardship that preaching the gospel of the cross free of charge creates for him. He does not preach grudgingly, because his lament has to do with not preaching the gospel: ‘For woe is me if I do not preach.’ The consequences for preaching are adversity and suffering, as they were for Jeremiah. But Paul’s attitude toward his suffering differs from Jeremiah’s. He does not bemoan it but welcomes it as something that reveals to others the life of Christ (2 Cor. 4:7-12). Preaching the gospel brings him life, but he will not live off the gospel. Preaching the gospel brings him life but exposes him to death time and again (1 Cor. 4:9; 2 Cor. 1:8-10). Not preaching the gospel brings a fate worse than death.
We ought, as Baxter put it, preach as dying men to dying men. But we ought also preach the gospel as though not preaching were worse than death.